⁷ Who serves as a soldier^(A) at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard^(B) and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?

⁶ Has anyone planted^(A) a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it?^(B) Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.

³ Join with me in suffering,^(A) like a good soldier^(B) of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

⁶ I planted the seed,^(A) Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.^(B)

The Charge to Timothy Renewed

¹⁸ Timothy, my son,^(A) I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you,^(B) so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well,^(C)

²⁸ Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock^(A) of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.^(B) Be shepherds of the church of God,^[a](C) which he bought^(D) with his own blood.^[b](E)

² Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds^(A) who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock^(B) and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil^(C) you have done,” declares the Lord. ³ “I myself will gather the remnant^(D) of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture,^(E) where they will be fruitful and increase in number.